Jobs Boom Hits Pittsburgh Metro

Before I pass along the big news, go read Chris Briem's hot-of-the-presses post at Null Space about the Marcellus Shale hype. Industry boosters are making a bunch of wild claims. There's no need for hyperbole or outright bullshit. From NPR's StateImpact Pennsylvania:

The drilling hotbed of Wash­ing­ton County saw a 4.3 per­cent increase in employ­ment, between March 2010 and March 2011. That’s the third-highest spike in the coun­try, accord­ing to data released today by the fed­eral Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But­ler County fol­lows close behind, with a 4.2 per­cent increase. That’s good for sixth, nationally.

The insinuation is that this impressive job growth thanks to drilling for shale gas. That may be the case. Someone else might be interested in digging deeper into the BLS data.

I don't care about the "why" of the job growth. Both Washington and Butler Counties are part of the Pittsburgh MSA. Just the other day, Chris Briem (Null Space again) pointed out the region was back at peak labor force. Pittsburgh is more than doing relatively well compared to the rest of the country. The metro is making economic history.